Elvis Aaron Presley was born in a small two-room house in Tupelo, Mississippi at
4:35 AM on January 8, 1935.
This was during The Great Depression. Times were hard everywhere, but especially
in the rural South. The national average annual salary was $1,368 and
unemployment was over 25%. Milk was 14¢ a quart and bread 9¢ a loaf. To escape
the dire circumstances people amused themselves with board games like the new
Parker Brothers game Monopoly, and by reading mystery novels by such writers as
Agatha Christie and Raymond Chandler. Another pastime was listening to the radio.
On the radio in the 1930's were comedians such as Jack Benny, George Burns and
Gracie Allen, and Fibber McGee and Molly. Dramatic radio serials featuring The
Lone Ranger, The Green Hornet and The Shadow kept listeners enthralled. The
music was that of the Big Bands such as Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, and Tommy
Dorsey as well as the folk songs of performers such as Woody Gutherie. George
Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin were prolific songwriters of the time.
Popular Country singer Jimmie Rodgers had ! died in 1933. The "singing cowboy"
Gene Autry was making movies and Len Slye (later world famous as cowboy star Roy
Rogers) and the Sons of the Pioneers were becoming well known. As clothes had to
last a long time, the simple print dress with a longer length replaced the
flapper dresses of the 20's. The zipper was the new thing in fashion and any
dapper man wore a hat.